Another take on "Jewish" music

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

>That said, it is interesting that several of the list members below
>have recorded music relevant to Judaism (e.g., Streisand's "Hatikvah"
>and Jolson's "Kol Nidre").

Maybe there is an issue that, while a person may be Jewish, they
may also be making popular music. It seems to be true that most
Jewish musicians, even historically, like most musicians, have
written primarily for the larger, non-Jewish audience. Being Jewish,
or Jewish melodies inhaled while younger may inform that music to
a greater or lesser degree, but it is music relevant to the experience
of the culture at large, not to Jewish music, per se, whatever that is.

When someone like Randy California (okay, I know, it's my favorite 
example in these cases) records "hine ma tov," as Spirit did on their 
"Family that plays together" album (the track was, in fact, labeled, "Jewish"), 
I see it as homage to one part of his roots, but that doesn't 
make the music particularly "Jewish." In the case of that particular 
band, labels like "Los Angeles" and "fusion" would come to mind long 
before one considered California's ethnic pride.

More interesting to me that such happenstance is what happens when 
someone like Debbie Friedman uses those melodies that are familiar 
to the culture at large, and applies them to a specifically Jewish 
context, or what happens when musicians such as the Tzadik or JAM 
recording/performing artists deliberately create a Jewish context 
in which to play music that isn't, necessarily, very audibly Jewish.

ari

Ari Davidow
ari (at) ivritype(dot)com
list owner, jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
the klezmer shack: http://www.well.com/user/ari/klez/

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